There’s something in the air, or maybe the food, up in western Washington state. The place breeds a certain kind of literary humor, recently showcased to sharp effect in the hilarious 2012 Seattle send-up “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” by Maria Semple (one of of that year).
And now comes “This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!” by , a Washington resident and author of “The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving.” It carries as much exuberance and rollick as Semple’s book, but with a stealthy pathos that oozes slowly into the fast-paced first half before utterly saturating the rest of the novel.
Harriet Chance, 78 and recently widowed, unexpectedly finds herself embarking a passenger ship for an all-inclusive cruise up the Alaska coast. She brings along a yogurt container containing her late husband’s ashes, an unopened letter from her lifelong best friend and measured hope. What follows is a sometimes drunken, sometimes sober, sometimes careful and sometimes just addled-by-honesty journey (up the coast but also down the rabbit hole of Harriet’s memory) that wraps deceit, dishonesty, regret and, yes, even love in a cloak of warmth and humor.
Supporting characters offer occasional laughs, but the humor comes mostly from this novel’s novel construction conceit: Its nameless, enthusiastic, sharp-witted narrator. With all the vigor of a television host (readers of a certain vintage will deduce that the title comes from the 1950s show that famously rehashed celebrity lives, even the warty bits), our narrator energetically recounts key moments in Harriet’s life. These range from awkward parenting anecdotes to painful childhood memories, and are revealed in a seemingly haphazard, but clearly very carefully designed, order.
The aggregate is a lucid, textured and open-ended portrait of a heretofore unexamined life, one that resonates as relatable, complicated and human. Is it a forgivable life? Is anyone’s? Isn’t everyone’s? That’s the challenge Evison issues here.
It’s hard to imagine a family member of any family who won’t see something familiar in Harriet’s quest to understand her spouse, her children and herself. And when the expected but still jarring ending unfolds, it’s hard to imagine the reader who won’t be moved by this lively, lovely work.
MEET THE AUTHOR. Jonathan Evison will read from and sign copies of “This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!” at the Tattered Cover Aspen Grove at 7 p.m. Sept. 24.
